Comment: America’s split personality could topple the dollar

With the Fed and Donald Trump offering very different responses to the pandemic, the dollar is in danger of losing its place as the world’s dominant currency – which could have far-reaching implications for the post-war international order

Donald Trump: the president‘s pursuit of isolationism threatens to erode US geopolitical power

With the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, the US seems to have developed a severe case of what psychologists call dissociative identity disorder: it is simultaneously projecting two distinct personalities.

On the one hand, the US Federal Reserve has responsibly assumed a leadership role in international finance, as it did during the 2008 global financial crisis. In March the Fed quickly resurrected a network of bilateral currency-swap arrangements with some 14 foreign central banks, and...